Saturday, April 30, 2016

It is truly stunning the amount of text that is devoted to
the Bug Out Bag. This is not one of
those posts. What I would like to do is
give a perspective of things that may not be considered when you are on the
move for an extended period of time and completely away from your normal supply
chain.

Being in the military assumes that you have an unending
supply of ammunition, fuel, food, and friends. There exist some times that either the military will not provide or the supply chain will not keep up with. Of course the unit has a detailed list of what people are required to
take. In some cases, to assure uniformity, they make it known where you should
put the item or how you should wear it.
The reasoning behind it is, if you are in need of an item in an
emergency, you will not need to look around for it if you have to get it off of
someone else’s kit. This especially
applies to things like first aid gear. What the unit cannot tell you are items that
you will NEED to take.

Prior to the start of the invasion, I tried to bend the ear of every single Gulf War vet I could find. “What the hell do you take on an invasion?”, I would ask. So they gave me
the following list in no particular order:

Baby wipes-This has been said many times before but needs
repeating. You can never have too many.
They are a lifesaver when you want to clean yourself but do not have the time
or ability to do so. When you are on the
run, things like water are a premium commodity and will not be wasted on
cleaning.

Batteries – It seems obvious, but batteries are
essential. Having your flashlight, electronic
optic, or night vision device go down will be a significant emotional event
when you really need it. This is another
item of considerable weight. I have not
looked into alternative power sources like the reportedly very fine one from Goal Zero, but it would be
something to look into.

Socks – Lots and lots of socks. I am a bit of a heretic to conventional
military wisdom when it comes to how I wear socks in the field. I believe in using plain white athletic socks
and changing them often. My feet tend to
perspire more than most so keeping them clean and refreshed is the best way for
me to maintain them. Of course your mileage
may vary with how your foot is conditioned.
Whatever kind you wear be sure and bring a lot of them. You will need every pair eventually and they
are not that heavy.

Tobacco – You will not be able to run to the corner store
and I assure you, you will not find any battlefield pickups. When I reached Iskandariyah on the outskirts
of Baghdad, we were able to find come cartons of the Iraqi government brand
cigarettes but they were used only as a last resort. Beside from being truly revolting to each of
the five senses, they ended up being forbidden due the high formaldehyde content. Of course, you can skip the whole thing and
quit now. I did after 14 years and it
has been one of the best things I have done for my health and my wallet.

Music/books – Entertainment items are superfluous but
essential if you do not want to talk to yourself a lot and struggle to remember
song lyrics. Even during the initial mad
dash to Baghdad and beyond we would still have times of boredom. I have seen many articles floating around
facebook about the utility
of having a survival tablet. I could
not agree more. Had I the chance to have
an ereader back in 2003, my quality of life would have been much better. Charging the battery is, of course, a
problem, but it is manageable with current advances in solar cell products. For the security conscious but not necessarily
tech savvy, (and you are security conscious, right?), I would recommend the Libertas
tablet as an alternative to the off-the-shelf version.

Laundry soap – You will get your clothes dirty and you will have to
was them yourself. A clothesline can be
made from 550 cord, but you will want a smallish container of Dreft, Woolite,
or other powder. The key is that is must wash away clean with as little effort as possible (hence the baby or hand wash only detergents). All
Free does not have optical whiteners, so if you do not want to shine like a
Christmas tree when being viewed by an enemies Night Vision Device, you
will want to go with that brand. I tried
to use a device that was shaped like a ball that was supposed to build up
pressure on the inside as you rotated with a crank but it did not work. I think that the technology has caught up a
bit, so if you can find a labor saving device to keep your undies nice and
fresh whilst on the move, more power to you.

Toilet paper- Another item you can never have enough
of. However long you plan to be out,
assume that it will be longer. MRE
toilet paper is woefully inadequate on many fronts. Baby wipes shine in this department but you
may want your foe other things. I would
recommend a full roll that has been relatively waterproofed in a ziplock baggie
as enough for a month. The fairer
gendered among us may want to consider a bit more.

Caffeine or other stimulants – This, for obvious litigious reasons,
you will have to be careful. When on the
run, you will have to be sharp and focused to do what you have to do. The first 36 hours of the race into Baghdad
we were driving the entire time. When you
are in continuous active combat operations you will not always have the luxury
of taking a power nap. The effects of sleep
deprivation (among
others)are a lowered immune system, weight gain (from using food to fuel
your body to keep it awake), and eventual organ failure. The harsh reality is, sometimes, it just
cannot be helped if the mission or situation requires you to be awake. So by having something on hand that can keep
you focused for a longer amount of time until you can reach that nap, you will
be better off.

Zip Ties/Duct Tape - Hundreds of uses. Maybe it was my lousy Supply Sergeant, but I never saw enough of these and would always have to buy it on my own. Having a small bunch of various sized zipties that are fastened arond a rubber band are essential to every packing list. If you are careful with your supplies, you can even reuse them. Duct tape can be either rolled around an old plastic credit card or pencil (the latter being my favorite).

Friday, April 29, 2016

Humans are social animals---even those of us who are introverts. Being in the resistance can be a very lonely existence. Having to compartmentalize parts of your life even within the existing compartments, having to “live the life” of privacy and security, having to constantly keep track of ever-changing threat landscapes even within your own groups, never being able to really trust anyone...all of this is exhausting. It requires a mental discipline that quite frankly, most people don’t have and aren’t interested in cultivating. As the saying goes, the human element is always the single greatest point of failure in anything. This is true even if (especially if) you're talking about security protocols and resistance members.

Imagine going an entire 24 hour period--or longer--where you specifically attempt NOT to talk to anyone, not to interact with anyone, not to let anyone really see or notice you, being absolutely forgettable…while being in public and around people. Can you do that? You might think so. You don't like people anyway.

But now consider all the tiny things that humans do to stand out without even thinking about it (and believe me, this list applies to us all—I’ve had to make some changes myself as I’ve learned and grown over time).

- Anything that does not fit in the environment where you are (wearing a jersey for the Minnesota Vikings while in Green Bay, for instance; or camo pants in a section of town more known for its vegan restaurants and yoga clinics)

- Things we are interested in or collect.

Now imagine that whether you get arrested or even killed today depends on your ability to fade, to go without talking to people you know, to go without being yourself. Now could you do it?

Whether we admit it or not, the same thing that drives us to get tattoos, to wear that in-your-face T-shirt, to put the bumper stickers on our car and announce to everyone who we are and what we are willing to do, is the exact same thing that is exploitable by anyone who’s trying to watch/track/hunt you. That’s what will make someone remember you when you desperately need to not be remembered. That’s what will get you caught, or make it impossible for you to carry out certain tasks.

No one remembers the guy on his laptop wearing a button-down shirt and a clean-cut appearance in a coffee shop full of guys on their laptops, all dressed like businessmen and sipping lattes and whatnot, who come in for an hour, get a bit of work done on their laptops or have a quick meeting. They do, however, remember the guy with the big ol' beard who came in to that same trendy little shop wearing a shirt that brags about his willingness to kill for liberty, tactical pants and a DTOM hat while ordering a large coffee, black. If someone comes to the shop later showing your driver's license picture around, which of those two scenarios would result in someone saying "Yeah, I remember that guy!"

We could talk all day about being the gray man, about fading into your environment and being invisible even in public, but that's not the focus of this article. Today we're talking about something deeper: the drive that makes humans naturally want to NOT fade. The drive that craves identity and wants to let that identity shine through, whether it be through our clothing, our vehicles, our stickers, our hair, even our mannerisms and habits. We are who we are--and that leaks everywhere we go, unless we learn how to control it and how to hide it when necessary.

The greatest point of failure in your operations, your security, your group, your life...is you. By extension, that means that the people you work with are also on the hook for your mistakes---and you are on the hook for theirs. (Reason #489 why you should be very careful who you associate with and/or even discuss liberty resistance business with.)

Even basic good character traits can be exploited. People's desire to help others, their need to impress people, even to feel accepted and liked; all of these things can be used against you. In other contexts, criminals use these all the time. There is a reason why in many places it's not safe to pull over and help a stranded motorist. There is a reason why Ted Bundy was able to rape and kill a number of women by wearing a fake cast and pretending to need help. Human nature is, by default, exploitable.

Take the time to sit down, go through your life, your closet, your vehicle, yourself. Find the places where you "leak" information or make yourself vulnerable, and find a way to plug the holes. Plan out how you would go about getting a burner phone, for instance. Don't just plan the location, plan it all. How will you get there? What will you wear? How will you act? If you already have that burner phone, think through how you did it. Is there something you could have done better?

You might be surprised at how much you give away...even when you're hiding. We all learn, we all evolve. If you're doing everything the same way you did a month ago, a year ago, you're not learning.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Will the real warrior please stand up?“Out of every hundred men, ten shouldn’t be there, eighty are are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.” - Heraclitus

I do not wish to try to put my own spin on why this article is relevant. Replace the word "warrior" with the word "leader" and you will see how applicable it is today as it was in two and a half millenia ago.

BLUF: For the most regulated industry in America, a Connecticut Judge rules for "Social Justice" not Rule of Law. A symbolic case against Bushmaster for the companies perceived complicity in the Sandy Hook Massacre is starting to gain traction with the help of Connecticut’s Superior Court Barbara Bellis.

Even though the Bushmaster rifle used in the shooting was stolen, the prosecution seeks to prove that the rifle's intent is for killing. Let that roll around in your mind for a second.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Having spent most of my adult life with the M16/M4 family of weapons, the platform just comes natural to me when I pick one up. The ease of shooting, ergonomics, and modularity make it an easy weapon to shoot. Since the Global War on Terror kicked off and defense spending went through the roof, firearms manufacturers have been cranking out the latest widgets and gizmos at a dizzying rate. Some work. Some are quite silly.

Pretty Ninja, huh?

Mostly due to the flood of useless crap, the pendulum has swung the other way and the rifle purists are becoming happy once again. While we may never get back to just iron sites, I am seeing more unrailed weapons than before. I am completely ambivalent to keymod, picatinney, or plain jane. To each their own. But even the rifle purists understand that there are utilities in at least some of the toys available today. In my very humble opinion, every weapon needs a light and I am certainly not alone. Talk to a cop or Marine that has had to clear a room in the dark without night vision and you can quickly see the advantage. Especially for your home weapon, lights prevent angels, as the saying goes. Other than lights, installing a quality trigger on your M4gery is the single best thing you can do to aide accuracy.

What I would like to talk about in this post is the use of the Redimag in conjunction with Magpul's BAD lever to get your weapon back in the fight after you have expended a magazine or need to clear a malfunction. What this will do for you is get your weapon back into the fight quicker than you could otherwise by utilizing economy of movement by eliminating unnecessary sweeping motions from your hands to your gear to bring your weapon back into the fight.

Okay, great but what does that mean? The best way to illustrate this is visually. Please see the videos below:

What it looks like:

How it works (pretty much) with your gear:

It should be noted that neither of these videos do the platform justice, but I think you get the gist. Not to say that the guys that made the videos did a bad job, it is just difficult to explain how these things work if you are not familiar with it. Also, your gear may be different than the other guys. Mine sure is. Just understand that the entire idea is to prevent you from wasting valuable time in motion grabbing that things when you can have everything right there.

The Redimag is a bolted on accessory that attaches around the mag well that enables you to hold another mag on the weapon without the use of a mag coupler. The Gen 1 version of the Redimag (no longer in production) dropped both the mag in the mag well and the mag in the redimag simultaneously. The new version makes you first drop one mag and then drop the other. This is not terrible as in a real world, not getting infinite supplies from Uncle Sugar, you will want to hold on to those mags for future reference. One more thing of note for the determined Tacticool Geardo, the Redimag can hold a Surefire 60 with a regular aluminum or plastic mag sitting in the mag well (and of course vice versa). Potentially 90 rounds on your rifle may seem heavy and overkill. Normally it is. But you may not be doing normal things all the time. Exactly the reason you have the weapon in the first place, right?

The BAD lever is covered in many articles from many different companies. At around the price for a large pizza, it is a pretty good deal to eliminate movement of your non-firing hand touching the paddle for the mag release. You simply sweep your finger up, tap the release and you are ready to rock.

Easy peezy, right? Utilizing the technology available to get you back in a fight, or to determine good guy from bad guy quickly, or aide you in putting rounds where they should go should not be taboo. Adding stuff to the rifle will cause it to get heavier but it is not the end of the world. Making a rifle that is 6 to 7 pounds heavy when loaded into a 7 to 8 pound weapon but gaining those abilities mentioned above is a pretty good trade off. I will close this out with this final very important tip that neither of these things will work if you do not train with them. Especially for the guys that have had one for years, there is a learning curve you will have to overcome in order to actually make this system work faster. Practice, practice, practice. And when you are done practicing, repeat it again.

Check it out. Give it a chance. If you have another whiz bang, holy smokes gotta have it widget, let me know in the comments. Just do me a solid and no "AK or _____ is better than the crappy mutilated M16 I fired for familiarization in Airforce boot camp"posts. I get it, and you are absolutely right. Now lets move on.

If you have not seen the latest update from David Codrea relating to his short trip, I would invite you to do so. Death is a homecoming, but he has summed up the sentiment of saying goodbye to the Old Man in a way that I could not.

What an incredible life he must have lived to know such a friend as David. If we all had just one like him, this world would be a very different place.

Monday, April 25, 2016

I collected a number of Freedom Fighter grade magazines for distribution in armed civil disobedience actions in New York and Connecticut. I would like to see if there are any volunteers to publicly distribute these in defiance of those laws, but there is little likelihood that I can participate myself. I'm simply running out of time. As originally envisioned, I have a reporters for a major news organization to cover it and my plan was to use the venue of some county (NY) whose sheriff has publicly declared his opposition to SAFE act enforcement.

CT of course is a bit more problematic, but if necessary, CT's portion can be reassigned to NY. If there are any volunteers who are willing to take the risk, please email me. Thanks.

Just like most fledgling uprisings, the line between
success and failure rides on the razors edge.
History is filled with examples of ill-advised, Pyrrhic, and prematurely
executed attempts to gain freedom. The Easter
Uprising on April 24, 1916 was of no exception.

The Military Council of the Irish Republican
Brotherhood, which consisted of Eoin Macneill, Chief of Staff of the Irish
Volunteers, Patrick Pearce, James Connoly, Sean MacDermott, Bulmer Hobson,
Patrick McCartan, and John MacBride decided that it would be prudent to call
off the uprising and develop a better plan. During the planning meeting,
MacNeill had initially voiced concerns that it would not be the best time due
to an arms shipment from Germany abourd the Auld had been seized and would not
be arriving. Pearse and MacDermott eventually agreed at the meeting that the
fighting would be postponed until the time was right. The Military Council was
not unanimous in consent to hold off on the Uprising. Tom Clarke gave the most
passionate disapproval for the measure insisting that it go on as planed so the
movement for Irish Independence would not lose the momentum while the English
Military was busy fighting World War 1.

On Sunday, April 23rd, 1916, MacNeill, had an article
published in the newspaper the Sunday Independent that gave orders to members
of the Irish Volunteers, Citizens Army and the 200 strong female Cumann na mBan
to cancel the uprising.

No uprisings were planned on a whim. Even Hitler’s
Munich putsch was planned a year prior. Other than the Military Council, most
of which would not survive the Uprising, several perennial figures surround the
event. Countess Markievicz, oldest daughter
to an English baron and Arctic explorer, was a leader in the socialist Irish
Citizen Army and close associate of James Connolly. On January 19, 1916, Connolly disappeared for
three days and would eventually show back up at the Countess’ house with the
plan to go on ahead with the Easter Rebellion despite what certain more cautious
council members would say. He has
enlisted Pearse to calm any fears that MacNeill would have prior to the event. Prior to the seizure of the German weapons
shipment, the council had planned to have MacNeill unknowingly recruit and
mobilize for the uprising. As the plan for MacNeill shifted, Pearse leaked fake
documents to the council allegedly coming from the Dublin Castle, the British seat
of power in Dublin, which gave word that the weapons of the Irish Brotherhood
were to be seized. This was to bring a sense of urgency to MacNeill but he
instead, of course, advised more caution. In addition to the subterfuge with MacNeill,
Connolly and his associates went so far as to kidnap fellow councilman Bulmer
Hobson, so as to prevent him from compounding any opposition prior to the uprising.

Even though Connolly, Pearse, Clarke and even MacNeill’s
subordinates knew that they would more than likely be leading a failed coup. A failure
which would assure their deaths; they were prepared and welcomed becoming
martyrs. They had put all of their chips
on the fact that the British would completely over-react and in so doing shift
more public opinion to home rule and independence. They, of course, would
succeed. Everyone, save a couple on the
council, would eventually get their chance at martyrdom after the Easter
Uprising.

On Sunday, Captain George
Oliver Plunkett, commander of the Kimmage Garrison, had been convalescing in a
hospital outside of Dublin but discharged himself. The following day, Monday, April 24th,
Captain Plunkett marched his Soldiers to the train station and used his
revolver to flag down a trolley. He paid
for all of his 52 passengers, and then demanded that they be taken to the city
center. The first order of business would be to commandeer Dublin’s General
Post Office (GPO), a place that would be the headquarters for the rebellion for
the remainder of the week.

The instructions to abort the rebellion had
significantly reduced the numbers for the first day. Plunkett arranged his coterie in sections of
four, as was the standing order for the Irish Brotherhood, and marched them to
the GPO. British Army Garrison Soldiers
that were off duty lingered outside and were amused that the Irish were playing
at being Soldier. Plunkett who had to be
assisted off his horse ordered his men charge the GPO and clear everyone
out.

The British Soldiers stationed inside had been
completely taken by surprise and did not even have ammunition loaded in their
rifles. After a few shots at the ceiling
and a few bruised egos from the incredulous patrons, the GPO was cleared.
Pluckett’s Soldiers immediately took to fortify the building and place snipers on
the roof. By this time Pluckett had
begun to succumb to his illness and was visibly worn out from the exertion.
Pearse and Connolly walked out of the GPO together, and Pearse read the
following proclamation to a small audience of curious onlookers whose loyalties
to the event were decidedly mixed:

“In the
name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old
tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag
and strikes for her freedom.

Having
organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary
organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military
organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having
patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment
to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and supported by her exiled
children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first
on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.

We declare
the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the
unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The
long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not
extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the
destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have
asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the
past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that
fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we
hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we
pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its
freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.

The Irish
Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman
and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal
rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to
pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts,
cherishing all of the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the
differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a
minority from the majority in the past.

Until our
arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent
National Government, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected
by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby
constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in
trust for the people.

We place
the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God,
Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that
cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme
hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness
of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself
worthy of the august destiny to which it is called”

Not
knowing the full scope of the uprising, the British Lancers on horseback had
been initially dispatched to clear out the GPO.
A call from the Irish leaders to not fire, (presumably to maintain the
moral high ground), was ignored. As the
Lancers began to get closer to the building, volleys of fire from Enfield’s quickly
cut down the Soldiers and their mounts and they retreated. A newsboy would collect the rifles and
ammunition the Lancers left behind and ave them to the Irish occupiers.

Word
quickly spread throughout the city and armed bands of British Soldiers and
Irish Constabulary would bump into the “Volunteers”, (a title they used for the
collective rebellion forces), and engage each other in small ambushes. To complicate matters, the Dublin slums
emptied for opportunistic looting and the city quickly spiraled out of
control.

The GPO
would withstand repeated assaults, largely due to the defense network and the
open fields of fire. With the exception of City Hall and a few other minor road
junctions and buildings, the Irish would be unable to capture any other key locations
of British government and dislodge the British Garrison from the city. During a night operation, the British entered
the City Hall through a back window and retook the building in a stealthy and
daring raid. All occupants were killed
or captured.

Fighting
during the Uprising is largely characterized by rooftop sniping and long range
gun battles as neither side was prepared for a direct urban engagement. The British, however, were able to use
machine guns and grenades to great effect against the Irish. The fighting on Tuesday would be constant and
brutal. Many of the Volunteers had fled
the city and it was left with the determined few to hold onto key road or buildings. In Stephens Green, the Irish had dug hasty trenches
and prepared to hold the ground. Of note
the Countess had been present at the Green to assist in digging trenches and fighting. Instead of an outright battle to clear the
area, the British placed machine guns at the top of a nearby hotel to the north
that overlooked the green. The British
were able to kill five and send the remainder fleeing to the nearby College of
Surgeons. Despite the setbacks, the
Irish were unbowed and sent out a telegraph to the world proclaiming that they
had held the city and today would be the birth of the Irish republic.

The River
Liffey, as it is called, intersects Dublin, and it was through here on Wednesday,
April 26, a British fishing protection vessel named “Helga” floated into Dublin
and opened fire with two large 18 pound cannons on the Custom House and Trinity
College. The destruction of the certain
parts of the city by the bombardment would be considerable and would deny the
Irish more key terrain.

2000 fresh
faced and brand new British Soldiers landed in Dublin with orders to clear the
streets. Their effects, however, were
quickly halted when they were ambushed and began taking considerable casualties
from coordinated fire from two different building. Eventually the British would
have to clear the buildings with a series of grenade attacks. Word eventually spread to the Volunteers of
the considerable casualties they were inflicting upon the British, but it was
obvious that they were not gaining any new ground that their supplies were
quickly being depleted.

Fighting on
Thursday would be even more desperate.
By the end of the day many of the Volunteers that still chose to fight
had either expended their ammunition and died in place or surrendered. Connolly was wounded in the ankle and was
able to make it to the GPO for medical care by a captured British Army
surgeon. Many parts of Dublin were
burning or had been destroyed by artillery.
The last fighting between the British and the Volunteers would be in
house to house clearing. The Irish would
knock down walls to enable them to move effectively from house to house.

By 3 P.M.
Pearse had surrendered to the British military authority, General Howe. Connolly had to be removed from the GPO by
stretcher and would follow Pearse to sign the surrender order. Plunkett led his Soldiers out of the GPO and
surrendered en masse. Fighting would go
on sporadically with 1st Battalion’s Ned Daly refusing to lay down
arms. The Uprising, however, had been
crushed and by Sunday the city was rebuilding.
Civilian casualties would be horrific.
An estimated 250 were killed and over 2000 had been wounded.

The
Countess would eventually be captured and was given a death sentence for her
part in the Easter Uprising. She would
eventually have that sentence commuted, and would take an active part in the Irish
Civil War and Irish politics. Eamon De Valera would also be spared death, largely
due to the fact that he was part American, (his father was actually of Cuban
decent). James Connolly was famously
executed while sitting in a chair (due to his leg wound). Thomas Clarke, Sean MacDermott, and John
MacBride were also executed that May.

Lesson 1:
Trust your friends, but verify.

Never turn
your back on crazy. MacNeill had been an
unwitting pawn, but by issuing the stand down order on Sunday, he stymied the
efforts to truly bring about a decisive victory on the first day of the
Uprising. Had the Irish been able to use the momentum of the victory at the GPO
to take more buildings unawares, they could have isolated Dublin Castle until
reinforcements arrived. Potentially,
they could have captured more of the Garrison and used that as a bargaining
chip. As it went, they had too few
Soldiers and too few weapons to ensure victory.

Also, if
your friends are quite serious about martyring themselves, you should believe them. If you are not into the murder-suicide thing
that characterizes martyrdom for political beliefs, it is probably
best to choose different friends.
Citizen Soldiers generally do not have any qualms about laying down
their life for something greater, like freedom from a tyrannical foreign government. What they would strongly disagree to is dying
for the sake of a body count.

Lesson 2:
Know the capabilities of your enemies and know your own.

The
British employed superior firepower from machine guns, grenades, a gunboat and
a armored cars to break the lines of the Volunteers. While the Military Council was quite aware of
how foolish the coup would be, the average Volunteer could not have known, at
least initially, how desperate their fight would be. Numbers of actual fighters
for the Uprising have the Volunteers outmatched by four to one. Additionally, most of the Irish Volunteers
would not participate in the hard fighting at the end of the week,

Lesson 3: Sometimes
you have to go through the rain to get to the rainbow.

After the
Military Council was destroyed, Puckett’s Aide de Camp, Michael Collins, would
pick up where they left off and would cause the British immeasurable grief to
great effect and without the martyrdom. Not
martyrdom by the British, at least. He
could not have had the opportunity to do so without the council destroying
itself and creating a power vacuum.

Lesson 4.
Always have a Plan B.

By Thursday, the Military Council discovered that they
were surrounded and that the same barricades that helped to defend their
positions were the same positions that helped to tighten the noose around them
and cut them off. The ability of the
British to envelope their positions could largely be from the fact that they had
16,000 Soldiers and 1,000 local police to work with whereas the Irish had on
1200 determined fighters. Had they
abandoned their positions by Wednesday, the Council would have remained largely
intact and it would not have been so costly in civilian deaths. Hindsight being what it is, the fact remains
that they did not allow for a Plan B, or a way out. I would consider that pretty important.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Friday, April 22, 2016

I have been trying my best to answer mail requests and comments but I am still woefully behind. I owe it to each person that supports the 3% movement and contacts me through this blog, the email addresses, or now through Facebook, a timely and considerate response. Due to the overlap in information requests I would like to address a few recurring questions.

Question 1: How is Mike doing?
Still ornery as ever. As good as to be expected. "Fair to middlin', partly cloudy" as he would say. He has been spending most of his time tying up loose ends such as finalizing a will, tinkering with Absolved, meeting with old friends, and generally still being a thorn in the side of the enemies of liberty. There is still much to do and I think that has been keeping him going.

Question 2: T-Shirt Sales
Regretfully, t-shirt sales will have to be put on hold for the foreseeable future. I would like to start exploring a Cafe Press or other online t-shirt company where fans can get SSI logo merchandise,but that will be well into the future. There still exists a quantity of original 100 heads shirts but I cannot say for certain what colors and sizes remain. I deeply apologize that I cannot give you a concrete answer as to when the remainder will be made available. Though I am not personally aware of any remaining orders, if you have paid money for the shirts and not received any, please send me the date and amount you sent as well as any pertinent shipping and contact information. You can reach me at sipseystreetirregulars@gmail.com.

Question 3: Absolved
This being the 300 million dollar question on everyones lips. With a bit of luck, the Old Man will live to see this book become a reality. I assure you he wants nothing more than to be able to make good on his promise to put a copy of the book personally in your hands. If he cannot, that will fall on the family. As the final work of Mike Vanderboegh, I vow to you that I will make this a reality. It will go out first on Kindle and then on paperback. Absolved will not be an unfulfilled dream.

On Tuesday, I happened upon a conversation that by rights
should have given me PTSD, or at the very least a lazy eye. I go in to work earlier than most and start
at it pretty much right away. There is
an older gentleman who comes to work an hour early and spends that hour trying to consume as much food as he is able.
He is fond of his “Vietnam Vet” hat but looks entirely too young for
it. He has raged against the Bilderberg’s,
is a bit of a black nationalist, and loves the 24 hour news cycle. Usually, he is good for a laugh. I walk in
the break room and he is has put down his sandwich and is staring intently at
the TV screen that is currently highlighting whatever Bernie Sanders is up to.

So I says to him, half-jokingly, not really caring about his
politics, just making small talk,” So you feeling the Bern, are you?”

Considerately, “Well, I am, I just don’t think he’ll win”.

Sweet baby Jesus, I hit pay dirt. I can get an unvarnished opinion from a
Bernie supporter. The last one I tried
to talk to was not very sporting at all.
He played grievance Olympics by becoming offended at my use of a curse
word in a sentence. I believe it was, “How the fuck do you think that would
work?” or words to that effect. This one,
I can jump right into his mind a bit and root around to see if I can get to the
root cause of the madness.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What do you think that he will do for you personally?”
I ask.

“Well he doesn’t like Wall Street.”

"Who do you think is financing his campaign?” I retort. I am bluffing, of course. I really do not know nor care how he is
funding his war chest.

He is noticeably blinking.
The RAM is having difficulty processing the new information.

I redirect the question. “Okay, you do know that Bernie is
a communist, right?” I figure he MUST have heard that this probably is a bad
thing to be at some point in his life.

“No, he a socialist”

Okay, he did not quite take the bait but we can work with
this. If I can make him see how ruinous socialism
is, maybe…

“What do you think is a difference between the two?”

“Well theys either communist or socialist”.

I feel my left eye drift over towards my right.

“That may be more true than you know, but you do understand
that there are more forms of government than socialist and communist, right?”

He blinks again. Harder this time.

He retorts, “But you say that Trump was going to bail out of
the race”.

This is a reference to my original idea that Trump was just
in it for the campaign contributions, and would exit the race at the primary so
he can keep the money. I am quite sure
his success was as much of surprise to him as it was to everyone else, so I
stand by it as being correct for the time.

“Are you saying that he is not an opportunist?”

More blinking.

I ask, “Are you saying that me being incorrect on Trump
exiting the race is the exception that disproves the rule that Bernie is a
communist?”

I immediately regret the question and quickly move on, as he
is now visibly losing interest.

“Well Bernie is going to raise the living wage.” He says
triumphantly. This is something that he
just KNOWS.

“Cool, how is he going to do that?” I parry.

‘Well he is going to take it away from the corporations.” He
reposts.

“Do you know that 75% of the businesses in America are small
businesses that are either a single or family run and employ less than 50
workers? You want to tax those guys? How are they going to pay for it?”.

Ah ha, now I got him.

“Well if you don’t know, I aint going to tell you.” He
exclaims quite as-matter-of-factly.

‘Wait, did you just use the ole ‘I know the answer, I just
want you to tell me first’ trick?” I ask.

“Well if you don’t know, I aint going to tell you.” He
commits.

“But..” I stammer, having forgot all of my 3rd
grade comebacks. I feel as though my left eye is looking directly at my right
eye.

“Well if you don’t know, I aint going to tell you.” He repeats
this over and over again. This is his final stand. I know I will get no more from him.

We go back and forth a little bit and he catches me off guard
with a moment of clarity.

He says, ‘Well, no matter what we say, we just won’t agree.”

That was the most profound thing he had said to date. No, we will not see eye to eye on much of
anything. It bothers me a bit that I
know that he congratulated himself on his stunning victory, but I also know
that it only bothers me. The differences
being irreconcilable are clear and palpable.
I see that we, as a country, are finding less reason to debate and more
reasons to just shut down foreign ideas with noise. It remains to be see how long we find it politically
or economically advantageous to continue this charade and simple find an
amicable divorce.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Hide your kids! Hide your wives! Hide the silverware! We're taking social media by storm, folks! It is still pretty paltry over there but head on over and give us some love. We just might give some back.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Kit and others have pushed me to include more net security in what we do here at Sipsey Street. It is a process but every little bit helps. Kit is former Air Force, (but we don't hold grudges) with a BA in Counterintelligence and is currently finishing a thesis for a Master's in Criminal Intel. She has more than a few things to say about keeping your digital house clean. I guarantee a visit to Order of the White Rose will not be misspent time.

An excerpt: "... if you’re of the absolute belief that you have nothing to hide, that everything you do is just fine with the government, then you have a moral obligation to use that position to help the rest. You of all people should be providing cover, using the means available to help those who are being persecuted and targeted."﻿

I would like to take the opportunity on this auspicious day to thank everyone for their support they have given me in the past few days. I could not begin to appropriately express my gratitude for the incredible outpouring of support that I have received since the "Change of Command" post. It has been both overwhelming and humbling. I feel the weight more than ever to continue to support this community by producing quality content.

I have always seen this blog as a platform to better inform and educate, and by extension make better people. To that end, I would love to hear what you would like to see in the blog and how I can better serve this community.﻿

I am an unabashed geardo.Gear queer, gear whore, gear nerd, whatever you want to call it. I wear that moniker like a badge.I get my hands on a quality 500 Cordura with
triple stitching and a clever mounting attachment and suddenly I am 8 years old
with a mail in only limited edition Star Wars figure.It makes me smile every time.I wear quality gear because I know that good
gear does not grant magical powers of strength or speed.It will not make you fake it until you make
it.It
is not a replacement for real, honest-to-God training.It should be common knowledge that you
generally get the results from the quality of what you pay for.Sadly, I see a trend on certain forums that
gear made for the airsoft/cosplay community is perfectly acceptable.Or
that you can take on the entire Chinese army and bring down large game with the
.22 Marlin you bring out a couple of times a year for squirrels. I am
sure you have seen it.Just like any
other idea that people become completely invested in, telling folks anything
different will likely crush their world.I do not want to be the guy to curse that darkness.For public record, please allow me to light a
candle instead.

The “Sorry, Bruh. I can’t
hear you over how awesome this Rothco Ninja SWAT vest makes my butt look.” Guy

From what I have seen, the people that extol the virtues of
substandard gear are never people who have had to trust their lives to the
equipment.Curious, that. This mindset is generally from people that are too
ignorant of the harsh environment of what they are training for to know that the
UTG vest with the cool cross draw holder will absolutely let them down.Notice my word of ignorant and not
stupid.These are not stupid people but
simply people who do not understand how hard you have to be on certain
equipment.Without a frame of reference
brought on by experience (either through training or other life experience),
they have lulled themselves into a false sense of security that just because they
have SOMETHING that something is somehow enough.It is a similar mentality from the person who
takes their Mosin/M4gery/whatever out of the box once and thinks they have this
whole defense thing in the bag.

Cool guy widgets of whatever stripe are awesome if you have
the money.I do not put things like
weapon mounted lights on weapons or helmet mounted night vision in the category
of superfluous impedimenta.Things that
give you a huge margin of difference between people that do not have them are
generally worth every damn penny.Most
things can be bought on secondary markets like Facebook private selling groups
or internet auction sites for fractions of what they cost new.Never pay full price for anything.Peer reviews are a great way to filter out
the garbage as is asking the question “why do I want this and do I really need
it”. Leave vanity for date night.

The “But the guy on the
internet said I could take down a deer with this 10-22.” Guy

Deliberately not having enough or the correct equipment for
a task is misconception can easily be remedied by the simple equation of having
the right tool for the right job.Can
you take down a deer through the eye at 50 feet with an air rifle?How should I know because I would never be
crazy enough to trust my future food supply to a one-in-a-million shot? Living things do not sit perfectly still
generally.Fun fact for those that doubt it, people move
around a lot too if they know they are in danger.Can you face a mutant biker gang with a HiPoint?I suppose, but why would you want to? This argument most always boils down to
available cash.I get it.As a guy who has had a family and lived off
of an Enlisted mans salary for pretty much his entire adult life, I really do
get it.Just like everything else in
life, it all comes down to how much you want it. If you have the money to spend
on takeout pizza but not enough to save up for something that will actually
keep you and your family and your friends safe, I would ask that you think
about the quality of life you and yours will have when the S hits the F and it
really matters.You are a leader to
someone, whether you know it or not.Don’t let them down with a false sense of security that you have enough
gun.And again, don’t pay full price for
anything.

The “I have played play
Call of Duty a lot for like, 10 years man, so that pretty much makes me a
Spetznaz Super Sniper God. Or something.” Guy

Playing video games does not approximate any type
of training. Ever. It may be good to give you ideas on how to
clear a building or defend a compound.Humans are a pretty crafty bunch
when they really are trying to kill each other.
It is scary as shit to
actively have people who want to kill you. On that same note, In the past few years, the Army
has had to initiate a service wide physical training program to assist Millennials
in building up their atrophied bone structure because they were having too many
hip and leg injuries.Get off the
couch.That thing will get you killed
quick.

Poor training habits, however frequent, is also a recipe for failure. If
you are using a computer you have probably seen by now videos from opportunists
that try and capitalize on new shooters that want to train by are too
ignorant to know what right training looks like. By providing newcomers with substandard to
criminally dangerous training, they are building habits that are very difficult
to fix assuming there is retaining.We know who these
people are and the community has been pretty good about giving them the
derision that they deserve.Good training
is a lifelong event so get out when you can and do quality training from vetted trainers.The best martial artists of
whatever stripe out there, whether it is 3 gun, cowboy action shooting, precision
rifle, or Greco-boxing-Krav-Ju-Sumo-whatever, are doing nothing but the
fundamentals.If you spend time to
perfect the fundamentals you become both quicker and more accurate.There will be time enough to learn the difference
between the Judy Chop and the Ninjy Chop when the fundamentals are mastered.

When a carpenter reaches for his hammer, he knows that it is
going to do what it needs to do. He is trained on it and knows its
limitations.It is not to be used for as
task when a saw would do.You do not
expect the hammer to drive in a screw.A
hammer does the task of pounding flat objects.If we all understand this then why is there always a clamor to use an
inferior product in an inappropriate way for tasks whose failure would be life
altering and expect anything other than failure?

Get good gear. Get it out of the packaging.Get trained on that gear.Repeat as often as you still draw breath.

Monday, April 18, 2016

So I get back from an 18 hour day and clear the comments
section out to find my first real piece of semi-hate mail.

Mr. Anonymous Special Snowflake at 12 something today wrote:

“Nothing honorable about killing people
half way around the world that never did anything to us. That’s not self
defense, that is murder. Furthermore, you were paid to do all of this with
money that was extorted from me and my family at gun point. Adding insult to
injury, you did the opposite of upholding your oath. You attacked people who
never harmed you or your family, and instead let the very people that extort,
kidnap, assault, and murder all of us,continue to do their evil. Not only did
you not defend your oath, you actively worked against it on many different
levels. I understand that you have bought the ticket and took the ride, and now
you are stuck defending the jingo mantra for the rest of your life, or be
subject to truth that will be embarrassing to you and hard to deal with. My
advice, let the truth in and move on, continuing the good guy military role
that will honor his oath is a lie. A deadly lie that not only has helped to
kill millions, but to only further enslave on”

So please tell me, Mr. Anonymous how much
courage it takes to regurgitate jingoistic talking points straight out of the Media
Matters playbook?Sitting and doing
nothing in the face of evil, (and Iraq had some very evil men), does not make
you morally superior.I will say that I
do not have to justify my existence to someone whose crowning achievement, thus
far, is showing up to comment on a blog.You may sneer at people who have done more than you ever will from the
safety of your room and go tell everyone that shares your limited worldview how
brave you were. But it does not make you brave.Going somewhere far off to defend a people you will never see again just
because it is the right thing to do, again and again, and again, is
courageous.Being afraid and going anyway is brave.Shooting spitballs at better men than you
whilst enjoying relative peace and prosperity is absolutely pathetic.

To be clear, I am not offended in the slightest by this
comment.I smacks of passionate naiveté and willful
ignorance.I hope that in the fullness
of time when this special snowflake has seen more of the world and understands history
a little better, they will remember this comment and how completely devoid of
reality it is.If not, meh, doesn’t
matter.I and my brother’s and sister’s don’t
need his approval.

The first time around in Iraq, I had the honor of serving in
the 101st Airborne on the Invasion.I would be lying if I said I do not miss the excitement that was unique
to the Invasion.Everyone I have met
that went on the “run and gun” ground assault race to Baghdad, with stripped
down HMMWVs, in unbreathable NBC suits, surrounded by 140 degree heat ,with very
little water and no air conditioning, tends to compare every other bad event in
our life to that year.I was completely
undertrained and underequipped, but I was simply too ignorant to know the
difference.That was the first
time.

On November 3rd of 2007 I happily left the
oppressive heat of Kuwait and went back to Iraq for the second time.I remember the date exact as it was the same
day that I got the call on my cell phone that my second Son, Gabriel, was
born.Due to some serious differences
between my boss and I about how he treated the Soldiers, I was asked to take an
assignment as the Squadron’s, (it was a Cavalry, i.e. light Infantry unit) public
affairs officer. My mother was a union
boss and my father was a militia leader so I guess I was just not built to shut
up and mind my own lane. The sunny side
of the incident was that it gave me the freedom to step away from a life as a
TOCroach or Fobbit, (to those unfamiliar with the terms please see “Bob on the
Fob”) and go Soldier.Some of what I
wrote went through sites like DVIDS and can still be seen online if you Google
hard enough.But I digress.

Lesson 1: Know your
neighborhood

There are three areas that you should be interested in.The Army calls this your Areas of Responsibility
(AOR).The primary zone is your area of operations
(AO).This is your house, yard, crops,
and everything that has your name on it.Everything you can physically touch is your Area of Operation.You have direct control of this area and it
is your primary focus for most everything you do.The second area is your area of influence
(AOI).This area is the block,
neighborhood and town you operate in. This is the area you are a stakeholder in and
if something were to happen to this area, your own area of operation would
likely come to harm.I will go more in depth into the Areas of
Responsibility and how it relates to planning in future Praxis posts

I told you that story to tell you this one; know who the
people are in your areas.Get a map of
your town from the local visitors shop and mark out your AOR.This is a map that everyone should be
familiar with and it will help you in dealing with future contingency
planning.Topo maps are absolutely
invaluable, so if you can have your area covered in 1:50,000 scale maps from
USGS.gov, please do so.It should be
fairly obvious, but noteworthy none-the-less, to point out that the farther you
get outside of your area of operation that the more you will have to interact
with other people their own areas of operation.What this means is that you will be dealing with individuals and groups
that will have their own self-motivations and they may not be helpful to your
cause. This is no different than today
but hardship tends to magnify personality issues seldom for the better. The quicker that you can form relationships
now in your area of influence is the more you can increase your effective area
of influence.

Lesson 2:Sometimes your “Friends” do stupid things.

The previous unit that occupied our AOR had to put a Stryker
armored vehicle on every street corner in order to maintain order.In order to sustain that presence, they built
walled compounds around Baghdad called Joint Service Stations (JSS) to house
and maintain a company of infantry.Given the urban terrain, some were obviously better suited than others
but we made do. It is easy to get things done when you don’t have a
choice.In order to get the Iraqi
military and police force to do their jobs, the headquarters of the local
military or police presence was co-located in the same compound.With everyone walking around armed all the
time it was relatively peaceful so long as you kept them out of your pantry and
bathrooms.Or until tragedy ensues.

Our JSS, dubbed Ghaz 1, was unique in that it had both local
militia and Iraqi Army.The militia was
created by Uncle Sugar as what amounted to organized pay outs to local thugs to
stop shooting at us and start shooting at the bad guys.Sounds crazy enough to work, right?One day, one reformed thug showed up with a
bomb but ended up prematurely detonating it on himself. The glorious moment was caught on one of our
cameras and provided more entertainment then what it had a right to.The take away is that it is impossible to see
inside the hearts of the people you call you friends and associates but try to
choose them wisely.Sometimes they do
stupid and self destructive things and it is best not to be collateral damage
when they do.

Lesson 3 Fences, sandbags
and walls are great. Walking is better.

If you want to maintain control your AOR you will have to
walk around and see what is going on.What you do not see, you do not own.It is fine l to sit in a hermetically sealed bunker with a pile of MREs
but that is simply unsustainable.Walking around gives you positive control over
what you currently see.Just like when
you are driving a car or clearing a room, as soon as your eyes are off of a
certain space, it no longer becomes safe.If you are not in control of your AOR, then who is?

Any Intelligence Analyst will tell you that for all of their
high end technology to find what they bad guys are doing and that the good guys
are thinking, it is the simple act of knocking on a door and talking with
someone that will get you the best intelligence.As I walked around Ghazaliyah with the
patrols, we would literally knock on doors to see if anyone would talk to
us.After a brief exchange of peasantries
we may be asked to share some tea or Tang, (yes, they loved the stuff) and talk
about what was going on in the neighborhood.Generally speaking, the Platoon Leader or Commander would enter their
homes with a very small security force and remove as much armor as they could
to scale down the intimidation factor.Then, with the aid of an interpreter they would have a talk.The worst thing that would come of this is
that the person would know that we were there to help.Go out and get social.

Lesson 4 Logistics,
Logistics, Logistics

Unlike my experience during the Invasion, during the Surge
we had seemingly endless supply of ammunition, food, bottled water, and, for
the most part, we did not have to burn our poo in fuel soaked metal
containers.We had a mountain of jerky,
Fruit Loops, salt, Pop Tarts, toilet paper, and hot sauce.We received one “hot” meal a day from the
main supply base, Camp Victory, and would have to get creative for the rest. It was not a hardship but then it is amazing
what you can get used to. As I remember, I ate a lot of Ramen that year. The supply train was great until it wasn’t there
anymore.A huge upsurge in violence from
the Jaish Al-Mahdi made the logistical patrols unpractical and the four
companies that we had sprinkled around Baghdad were cut off for a solid
month.With over one hundred guys
sharing the same few Port-A-Potties, everything stacks up fairly quickly.Donald Rumsfeld observed that you do not come
to war with the military you want, you come to war with the military you
have.In a “come as you are” world, you
will have to figure out where your logistical bread gets buttered and make sure
you reach those goals.The internet is
filled with endless lists for BOBs, 72 hour kits, etc.I recommend Rawles spreadsheet monster “List
of Lists” over at the Survival Blog for a more comprehensive supply list for
extended contingency planning.Because I
am a bit of an Excel nerd, I have tinkered to no end on my version. Take his as
a rough draft and make it work for you.

Lesson 5: Physical Training

Proper physical training that approximates the types of
conditions and equipment that you will use cannot be emphasized enough.Running in full kit for any distance will
take the breath out of you quick.The
last thing you want to do is run to the sound of an explosion or gun fire with
an energy tank on empty and have to wheeze your way into your first mag change.
Go on short runs of one to two miles
with a 12 to 20 pound weighted vest.Work your way up to using wrist and ankle weights.Do some pull ups and sit ups.If you cannot do any of those things you are
behind the power curve and will need to get there.People will count on you to be able to
physically do the right thing. Do not let them down.

If you are
overweight, cardio and no carbs is the key. Getting in shape is like a bicycle
in that you need both wheels of diet and exercise in order to run it.One without the other is a losing
battle.It is just that simple.There are more ways now than ever before to
get healthy and in a fighting shape.Take advantage of it now while you can.It is slow and painful but looking good naked is the byproduct.

Much of what I have written is not new
ground.Thousands of other Vets have had
similar or better, harder experiences than I regarding living and working in a
tenuous area between stabilizing the community and fighting.Whatever your stripe of preparedness, I would
ask that you seek out those Veterans and learn from their experiences.As time permits I may reflect on more lessons
learned and produce a follow up.I
would love to hear from the community as to what their lessons learned are from
either following a disaster or conflict.Depending on the response, we can hang them on another post.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.